Category: Name That Trauma!

There was a comic book I read in a store when I was a kid. It was kind of a black and white magazine type one, maybe Heavy Metal or one of those? Anyway, it was an Xmas story. The kid's father looks out the window to see Santa on the roof. Santa falls off the roof and crushes the father. The kid sees this and spends years planning revenge. Eventually he confronts Santa on Xmas and I think shoots him. Later on he's thinking about it and his mother goes outside. He hears something, goes outside, and his mother's been crushed by a giant Easter Egg, and it ends with him saying, "…the bunny…!"

I guess it was meant to be kind of funny but it sort of freaked me out as a kid. Anybody know this one?

Back in the mid-to-late 70's There was this advertisement for what I think was a horror/sci-fi anthology series. The scene starts out with an old man walking on a beach. He comes across this large shell-like thing that was washed upon the shore about the size of a car. Curious, he examines the thing at close proximity, then all of a sudden an arm-or-toungue-like projection comes out and grabs him. The old man gets pulled inside as he fights and screams to no avail. Scary as hell!!

This was just the commercial for the show and it scared me. To this day I can't remember the name of the show. It didn't have a long run, maybe one season if that. It might have been a British show that was syndicated to local U.S. broadcasters, or one of those Anglo-American ITC productions.

By the way, I think I did see one of the episodes, it was about a man lost in the desert; he meets a guy on horseback and asks for help, or a way out, but then the guy says something like, "Sorry but you don't know me well". then he disappears as if he was just a mirage.

This has been a lifelong quest to see this again!

Thanks Kindertrauma

Tom B

Hello there!

For quite a long time now I've been checking your site regularly but this is the first time I actually had the guts to write you. Lately I had a conversation with my girlfriend during which an old memory came up again, that I've forgotten about for a long time. It's a memory of an old movie or television series (I'm not quite sure about that) I watched as a child and that scared the living shit outta me.

There was a boy that had this strange comic book with a clown on the cover and he read it in class. His teacher confiscated it and threw it into an aquarium. Later the boy got it back and put it in the microwave at home to dry it. Then he went to look at it again, the clown on the cover was like cut out and now ran free in the real world. Of course nobody believed the boy's story but everyone the clown came across went laughing like crazy with blue slime coming out of their mouths – including the boy's parents. Yuck! The boy and his friends followed the clown with the help of the comic book, in which they could read what was going to happen next. One scene I remember is then they were sitting in a bus and reading the book which told them, that the bus driver was the clown/infected by the clown and they were looking up and the driver turned his head, laughing like crazy.

So, long story, big big trauma that haunted me for years aaand… I think I'm scared now. Help!

Oh and my name's Val. Have a nice day!

Hello! I just absolutely love your site and I've been thinking for a while now about asking for your help – you've been so helpful to so many people, maybe you can help me too! I'm trying to find out anything I can about this collection of kids horror stories that was published sometime in the early 90s or later 80s – I've been looking for it for so long unsuccessfully that I'm beginning to think I may have hallucinated its existence. Anyway, I had the book in elementary school and I believe it was written by one author, it had illustrations and a featured a few different tales but I can only remember two with any clarity.

One involves a little girl who falls asleep on a city bus and upon waking gets off at the wrong stop. Now lost in an unfamiliar part of the city, she finds this ball – of twine or yarn or something like that – and she begins to unravel it as she walks. As she's unwinding it she comes upon several scraps of paper with warnings written on them that say things like "Stop!" and "Don't Go Any Further!" When she finally does get the whole thing completely unwound there is an eyeball at the center of it and it is at this point that a homeless woman appears and comes rushing at her, yelling, "Can't you read?!" And the homeless woman is, of course, missing an eye.

The other story I remember involved a family that has just moved into a new house and one by one the family members disappear into the basement and do not return. Finally only the frightened son remains and he too ventures down and encounters a monster. But it is a friendly monster who has a cake and wants to welcome the family to the house, and everyone is alive and unharmed. If anyone could help me out with any information at all about this I would be so monumentally grateful. Thanks for taking the time to read this, I really appreciate it!

Hey there,

I love your sight, I check it almost everyday to see what new trauma's have come up and since Rememberance day is coming up for me in Canada on november 11, I remember recalled a movie I've been trying to figure out for years. I was very young when I watched it, probably 7 or 8, I think it had Donald Pleasence in a small role but I'm not positive. I can only remember the ending. A girl was supposed to be tried for something, but the liberators were aproaching. I think I remember Donald pleasence saying something to the effect of "Maybe this will save the poor girl." But the girl is not given a trial and is executed. I remember being horrified as she was shot and collapsed in slow motion. She was allowed to write a letter to her family who came later for the trial only to be told she had been executed. I think two women came and were given her letter, it sounded like a poem I think the poem ended with "no not, me not I"

I'm pretty sure it was a true story from world war 2, I don't remember the look on the girls face as being one of pain or horror when shot, more of release, almost a smile and that disturbed my young mind as well, How could dying in such an unfair way make you smile. I was completely horrified and had nightmares about it for awhile after. Lol Now I can watch things like Texas Chainsaw no problem, I guess I've come a long way. If anyone can name that film I'd appreciate it.

Thanks Kindertrauma

Hi Kindertrauma,

I am a massive fan of your website and was wondering if you or your readers could help me out. I'm looking for a film they used to show on the Disney Channel (I know, SCARY) around Halloween in the mid to late 90s and early 00s and nobody I know remembers the title. It was about a TV show presented by a Captain Birdseye lookalike and his puppets who were actually real disturbing creatures (one looked a bit like a prostitute and may have been called Esmeralda?) that was going to be shut down. There was also an evil woman that looked a lot like V's Jane Badler who wanted to take over the show/TV studio and she was followed by a goth henchman who kept saying "executive producer" in an eastern european accent. I think in the end the show was saved and the baddies defeated thanks to the help of some kids who loved the show. My friends and I thought it was called 'Little Monsters' but IMDB told us otherwise.

Anyway, the puppets as I remember them were terrifying! If anybody can shed a light on what the film was I would be hugely grateful as it would save me many more fruitless searches and sleepless nights.

Thanks!

Charlotte

Hey Kindertrauma,

I wonder if anyone can help me with this. Just before bedtime one night in the late 80s or early 90s I came upon a tv show about Robin Hood. Robin Hood was my hero, so yay! However something was not quite right this time. I only remember one scene (guess I turned it off in horror after that): Robin Hood is down by a river with someone. At one point he turns his back to the person, who keeps talking. And then SUDDENLY Robin Hood turns around, and he is EVIL now (fangs? crazy eyes? don't remember what gave it away). I think the story was that this wasn't Robin Hood, but some impostor. One clue: I'm pretty sure the actor playing Robin Hood had blond hair. Who can help me?

Hey. I have been wondering forever about this Japanese horror film from the 50's that I saw when I was a youngin'. All I remeber is that two witches who were quite tall came into the bedroom of a brother and sister and glided towards their bed. They had melty noses and black garb on and the set outside had drawn trees and lighting and a crescent moon. I have never found it. Any help or knowledge would put my insane mind at ease a bit.

A friend told me to seek you out, after I shared my traumatic horror movie memory with him, and so, here I am. I'm afraid, though, that my trauma might be too esoteric to be pinned down, but I hope I'm wrong.

It was a movie I saw in Puerto Rico as a kid, it was in Spanish, so it's quite likely that it was a Mexican/Latin American production. The setting is a boat in the Bermuda Triangle–I remember the ad campaign cashing in on the "mystery" surrounding the region. On that boat is a family, including young boy and girl siblings, and her doll. Naturally, the boat eventually becomes adrift at sea, and the family comes across some survivors from another ship. These are merchant marine types, who quickly hatch a scheme to take over the family's boat for their aims.

But the thing about the area they are in is that some malevolent spirit(s) reside there, and it(they) take over the will of those who are morally and mentally weak, and, somehow, the doll. Here's where the trauma comes in, there are numerous sequences where the doll threatens the kids, and is even responsible for the deaths of one of the kids and a couple of the adults…

That's if I remember correctly. It's been almost thirty years since I saw the flick, and I'm sure it left an impression despite being a cheap z-grade movie because of that damn doll. I can't be more specific than I've been however…

Good luck,

jose'

UNK SEZ: I think I do know this one! I believe our pal Francisco once wrote in about it (HERE)! Could it be 1978's THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE directed by RENE' CARDONA JR.? There's definitely a creepy doll in that one!

Almost a year ago you guys helped me out with 2 movies. Thanks again for that. Now I've got a new movie I'm looking for. Here's the description:

It's a British 80's horror movie (maybe 70's). Don't remember a lot of it. All I know is there was a scene where a guy hangs from a helicopter and falls off, landing on electrical wires and being electrocuted.

In another scene there was one (or multiple) people getting a tourguide in a factory. If I can remember correctly, an accident happened, someone fell into one of the machines (but I'm not sure about this anymore).

So I hope you guys can help me out with this one.

Thanks in advance and kind regards.

Goorlap

UNK SEZ: I may have this one Goorlap! Could you possibly be thinking of the Australian vampire flick THIRST(1979)? I'm pretty sure that HENRY SILVA falls out of a helicopter in that one and lands on some electrical wires (you can catch a glimpse of that in the trailer below) and I recall some tours through a (blood) factory too! Hope this helps but do let me know if I'm off the mark!